About this artwork
Ingres painted this portrait of Pauline de Broglie between 1851 and 1853, in his studio in Paris. He was 71 years old and had been the most respected portrait painter in France for three decades. Pauline was 26 when the commission began, the wife of Albert de Broglie, a diplomat and future prime minister of France. She was known for her beauty and her intelligence, but she was also deeply shy, and Ingres captured that quality in the painting.
The Princesse stands in three-quarter view, her body turned slightly to the left, her eyes looking directly at the viewer. She wears a pale blue satin ball gown with lace at the neckline and sleeves. Her left arm rests on the back of an upholstered chair, and her right hand holds a white shawl that drapes across her lap. Her hair is parted in the center and pulled back in the fashion of the 1850s, with a blue ribbon. Her jewelry is modest: a pearl necklace, a gold bracelet, small earrings. The background is a dark, warm red, with a mirror at the upper left that reflects a chandelier.
Ingres was the leading Neoclassical painter of the 19th century. He had studied with Jacques-Louis David, won the Prix de Rome in 1801, and spent two decades in Italy before returning to Paris in 1824. His portraits, which he painted reluctantly between larger commissions, are now considered his greatest achievement. He painted them with a precision and attention to detail that his contemporaries found almost excessive, and that later painters, including Degas and Picasso, studied with admiration.
Pauline de Broglie did not live to see the painting's full reputation. She contracted tuberculosis in her early 30s and died in 1860, at the age of 35. Her husband, Albert, never remarried. The painting remained in the family until 1975, when it was acquired by the Met as part of the Robert Lehman Collection.
Oil on canvas, 121 by 90 centimeters. Ingres painted with a smooth, invisible brushwork that gives the surface the quality of enamel. The blue satin of the gown is built in thin layers of ultramarine and white, with the highlights applied in precise, opaque strokes. The lace at the neckline is painted in such fine detail that individual threads are visible. The flesh tones are warm and smooth, with the shadows modeled in translucent browns. The surface has the still, worked quality of a painting that took two years to complete.
The vertical format and cool palette make this print work well in a bedroom, dressing room, or traditional living room. The pale blue and warm red pair with white walls, gilded mirrors, and traditional furniture. The 16x20 or 18x24 size gives the detail room to read. The painting has an elegant, melancholy quality that suits rooms with a refined mood.
The painting is part of the Robert Lehman Collection, given to the Met in 1975. Lehman was a banker and collector who assembled one of the finest private collections of European painting in the 20th century.
This is a public domain artwork (CC0), scanned from the original at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. We print it on archival matte paper at sizes from 8x10 to 18x24 inches, framed or unframed. The image is printed at full resolution with no cropping.
